Arena Digest: Is Richard Blumenthal toast in his Senate bid?

Arena contributors discuss if Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will survive reports saying he misrepresented his activities during the Vietnam War.

Grover Norquist, president, Americans for Tax Reform

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In Connecticut, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has been exposed as a liar, claiming to have served with the U.S. military in Vietnam when he in fact sought out and received as many as five deferrals. This not courtesy of Fox News but of The New York Times.

The joke about attorneys general, known as AGs, is that the AG stands for “aspiring governor.” Blumenthal used his perch to position himself as a holier-than-thou politician and berated others for “misstatements” or “misunderstandings” much less clear and dishonest than his own now exposed.

It is tough to regain one’s credibility when, hoisted by one’s own petard, one cannot take back one’s lies.

And his likely opponent in the Senate race has the resources to keep this ugly fact before the voters of Connecticut.

Richard Albert, professor, Boston College Law School

Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal is not the first Yale Law School graduate to stumble when explaining his service during the Vietnam War. Blumenthal’s law school classmate faced criticisms of his own about his role during the Vietnam War. Yet that classmate went on to become attorney general of his home state, then governor and, ultimately, president of the United States.

That person is Bill Clinton.

And just as Clinton stumbled, then rose to victory, so, too, can Blumenthal, who is still on track to become Connecticut’s next United States senator.

Theda Skocpol, professor, Harvard University

I think this is too much ado about relatively little. Blumenthal has long since corrected in public the one time he said an outright falsehood about his service. Otherwise, it is not that outrageous for him to tell veterans that he served during the Vietnam era. He did. I am willing to bet that this is not the kind of thing that will derail this guy in Connecticut. How many Connecticut Democrats evaded Vietnam themselves? A lot in that age group, I bet.